End-to-end Internet packet dynamics

We discuss findings from a large-scale study of Internet packet dynamics conducted by tracing 20,000 TCP bulk transfers between 35 Internet sites. Because we traced each 100 Kbyte transfer at both the sender and the receiver, the measurements allow us to distinguish between the end-to-end behaviors due to the different directions of the Internet paths, which often exhibit asymmetries. We characterize the prevalence of unusual network events such as out-of-order delivery and packet corruption; discuss a robust receiver-based algorithm for estimating "bottleneck bandwidth" that addresses deficiencies discovered in techniques based on "packet pair"; investigate patterns of packet loss, finding that loss events are not well-modeled as independent and, furthermore, that the distribution of the duration of loss events exhibits infinite variance; and analyze variations in packet transit delays as indicators of congestion periods, finding that congestion periods also span a wide range of time scales.

[1]  Van Jacobson,et al.  Compressing TCP/IP Headers for Low-Speed Serial Links , 1990, RFC.

[2]  S. Shenker,et al.  Observations on the dynamics of a congestion control algorithm: the effects of two-way traffic , 1991, SIGCOMM '91.

[3]  Srinivasan Keshav.  A control-theoretic approach to flow control , 1991, SIGCOMM 1991.

[4]  Amarnath Mukherjee,et al.  On the Dynamics and Significance of Low Frequency Components of Internet Load , 1992 .

[5]  Jeffrey C. Mogul.  Observing TCP dynamics in real networks , 1992, SIGCOMM 1992.

[6]  kc claffy,et al.  Measurement considerations for assessing unidirectional latencies , 1993 .

[7]  Van Jacobson,et al.  Random early detection gateways for congestion avoidance , 1993, TNET.

[8]  Jean-Chrysotome Bolot.  End-to-end packet delay and loss behavior in the internet , 1993, SIGCOMM 1993.

[9]  Larry Peterson,et al.  TCP Vegas: new techniques for congestion detection and avoidance , 1994, SIGCOMM 1994.

[10]  Van Jacobson,et al.  The synchronization of periodic routing messages , 1994, TNET.

[11]  V. Jacobson.  Congestion avoidance and control , 1988, CCRV.

[12]  Vern Paxson,et al.  Framework for IP Provider Metrics , 1996 .

[13]  Mark Crovella,et al.  Measuring Bottleneck Link Speed in Packet-Switched Networks , 1996, Perform. Evaluation.

[14]  Sally Floyd,et al.  Simulation-based comparisons of Tahoe, Reno and SACK TCP , 1996, CCRV.

[15]  Janey C. Hoe.  Improving the start-up behavior of a congestion control scheme for TCP , 1996, SIGCOMM 1996.

[16]  Sally Floyd,et al.  TCP Selective Acknowledgement Options , 1996 .

[17]  Vern Paxson,et al.  Automated packet trace analysis of TCP implementations , 1997, SIGCOMM '97.

[18]  Robert C. Durst,et al.  TCP extensions for space communications , 1997, Wirel. Networks.

[19]  Vern Paxson,et al.  Measurements and analysis of end-to-end Internet dynamics , 1997 .

[20]  Walter Willinger,et al.  Self-similarity through high-variability: statistical analysis of Ethernet LAN traffic at the source level , 1997, TNET.

[21]  R. Wilder,et al.  Wide-area Internet traffic patterns and characteristics , 1997, IEEE Netw..

[22]  Vern Paxson,et al.  End-to-end routing behavior in the Internet , 1996, TNET.

[23]  Vern Paxson,et al.  Framework for IP Performance Metrics , 1998, RFC.

[24]  Vern Paxson,et al.  On calibrating measurements of packet transit times , 1998, SIGMETRICS '98/PERFORMANCE '98.